Bathinda, November 11
The mesmerising date of 11/11/11 was marked by the stork's visit to a couple from Sangat Mandi area that was blessed with a baby girl after 17 years of marriage at 11:11 am today. The child was born at the Ketaki Hospital, where her mother had been undergoing treatment.

The proud father, Satish Singla, told TNS that his family had never planned for an 11:11 baby. "My wife's pregnancy was being closely monitored. Today in the morning, she felt a little discomfort and we rushed her to the doctor. The doctor told us that the amount of amniotic fluid in the womb has lessened and hence, the delivery had to take place today itself. It was a mere coincidence that our daughter was delivered at 11:11 am," Singla added.

Five children were born at the hospital of Dr Renu Garg in Veer Colony including two sons and three daughters. One child each was born at the Goyal Hospital, Romana Hospital and Dr Usha Madaan's hospital while two baby boys were born at the Civil Hospital by the evening. The doctors at the Civil Hospital said the tally was expected to increase late at night.

Kishan Bansal, a businessman from Mandi Gobindgarh, was blessed with a baby boy at the hospital of Dr Renu Garg. "We had not planned for the baby's birth today. It was a normal delivery and my wife Nany gave birth to our son at 9:15 am," Bansal said.

However, Sandeep Grover from Malout said that since his wife Rajni has reached her full term, the family decided to go for elective caesarean section today. "A few days ago, when we came for a check-up, my wife's 37th week of pregnancy had just started. So we decided to go for the child birth today as the day was unique in terms of number. We were blessed with a baby girl at 6:54 am and it is our first child," he added.

Sandeep's child was also delivered at Dr Renu Garg's hospital.

Bathinda, November 11
Patients, especially in the rural areas, heaved a sigh of relief as 150 employees of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) today resumed their duties in the Bathinda district after 28 days of strike.

The NRHM employees, who were on strike, included the ayurvedic medical officer, homoeopathic medical officers, staff nurses, lab technicians, radiographers and the clerical staff working at the district headquarters.

The employees, who had gone on strike on October 14 demanding regularisation of their services, ended their strike following the assurances, given by the Chief Minister, Principal Secretary to the CM and the Mission Director, NRHM, Punjab, at separate meetings held during the last few days.

The state vice-president of the association Narinder Kumar said the NRHM employees had today joined the duties as the CM and the Mission Director had stated that their demands would be implemented if they joined their duties first.

Narinder further said a copy of the proceedings of the talks, held between the state government and the association regarding the demands, will be handed over to the association on November 14.

Narinder said the demands that had been accepted by the government included enhanced salaries to all categories as per the programme implementation plan (PIP) prepared by the state NRHM authorities, framing of service rules, adjustment as permanent employees on vacant posts lying under the district health societies etc.

He also claimed the government had also agreed to involve the NRHM Employees Association while preparing the PIP for the financial year 2012-13. He said the CM had also agreed to grant medical allowance to them. 

Bathinda, November 11
The three master plans of the building of the Central University of Punjab (CUP), which have been made by three different architects, have been put on display at the university’s Mansa road campus today. The university authorities have sought voting from public, students and lecturers to finalise the design of the university.

The company that made the plan that gets maximum votes, will get the order for architectural layout of the university. The Rs 2,000-crore project is being set up on 500 acres near Ghudda village and the entire construction work will be completed in a phased manner.

Speaking on the occasion, CUP vice-chancellor Dr Jairup Singh and Bathinda Mayor Baljit Singh Beerbehman said the Centre-sponsored university would be completed within the stipulated period.

The state government has allocated the land for the project funded by the central government. Presently, the university is being run from its transit campus on the land leased to it for five years. It will be shifted to near Ghudda village once the construction work comes on track. The construction of the boundary wall had already begun, said the VC.

He said out of 84 master plans submitted by different architects, three had been short-listed and the final selection would be made by public. A voting box has been put up.

The VC said the citizens were invited to cast their vote for the best model out of the three models on display between 10.30 am and 4.30 pm, before November 18.

Bathinda, November 11
Technical glitches and high attrition rate, that means the rate of retiring employees or those who quit the job in between, have affected the socio-economic census in the district.

The census was to be completed by October 31. Though the supervisors have been verbally directed to complete it within the next seven days, the district administration is yet to hear from the state government on the issue. The supervisors expressed helplessness in completing the task in the next one week as the next two days are holidays.

The officials of the district administration said that they require 1887 tablet PCs to cover all the areas. However, the first batch of tablet PCs received was faulty.

"When the tablets were sent for replacement, we again got faulty machines, which have again been sent for replacement," the officials said.

The high attrition rate of government employees too has been responsible for the delay. Besides, while the government provided the enumerators, it was the service providing company that was supposed to delegate IT professionals for uploading the data. "The data entry operators were neither timely appointed nor trained, which led to the delay," said ADC Kapil Trikha.

There are a total of 616 enumerators working on 1000 machines. Each enumerator has been entrusted with four blocks.

"Till Thursday evening, work on 1004 blocks has been completed, while that of 887 blocks is pending. To complete the task on time, we have decided that those who have completed enumeration in all the four blocks will store their data in the hard disk," Trikha said.

He added that the data would be double stored in hard disks as well as computers and the same tablet PCs would be used for uploading new data. This is for the first time that the Government of India (GoI) is conducting a complex exercise of counting people on the basis of their religion and socio-economic factors.

It was earlier supposed to begin from September 20. For every block (a unit of 150 houses), an enumerator has been designated. There are a total of 616 enumerators and an equal number of IT professionals.

Ten per cent of these are reserve enumerators, whose help can be sought in case of an emergency. There is a supervisor designated for every six or more enumerators.

An enumerator and an IT professional visit each household to conduct the census, verify the data of the earlier census and enter fresh data regarding the religion and socio-economic status of the people being surveyed. At the end of day, the data collected will be uploaded on the civic body's server, which is connected to the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Bathinda, November 11
It is high time that reasons behind pre-mature greying of hair, diabetes and cancer, which have assumed alarming proportions in various pockets of Malwa, have been looked into, stated Dr Rama Rao, Dean (Academic affairs) of the Central University of Punjab (CUP).

The problem is acute in rural belts where lack of awareness and deficient health facilities lead to increase in number of patients and deaths.

Dr Rao, who is also associated with the Centre for Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, said they were researching on various issues related to public health.

“Apart from environmental hazards wherein people inhale pollutants, they are also under great stress these days, which make them prone to diseases like diabetes,” Rao said while talking to TNS at the CUP campus on the Mansa road today.

Several factors come to the fore while scientists trace the reasons behind the diseases like diabetes and cancer in Malwa. “As of now, there is no substantial or authenticated study that confirms the excessive use of pesticides in edibles as the only reason behind cancer,” he said.

There is a widespread assumption that youngsters in remote areas of Malwa are suffering from premature greying of hairs as compared to those of same age group but residing at other places.

Large-scale developmental activities taking place in Bathinda and surrounding areas also bring along health hazards. “The level of pollution, dust and chaos on roads has increased manifolds these days as compared to the past few years,” he said.

He pointed out that they were working on various issues and studies were being conducted in connection with the public health.

Dr Rao expressed concern over the imaginary data on cancer patients and deaths due to cancer. He said the CUP authorities would soon come out with their research work on various issues.

Bathinda, November 11
Three employees of the Red Cross Medical Store, Bathinda, who had resigned on November 8 from the posts of accountant, pharmacist and salesman, respectively, have decided to move the court against the District Red Cross Society (DRCS) for not giving them the incentive on the sales of the medical store.

According to the Deputy Commissioner-cum-president of the DRCS, KK Yadav, no decision has been taken on their resignations as he has not yet seen the file concerned.

Accountant Raj Kumar, pharmacist Preeti Goyal and salesman Sanjay Kumar said they had been compelled to resign as the Red Cross authorities had not been granting them the incentive on sales since February 2011 while the other six employees of the store had been given the incentive.

A notice to the Red Cross authorities has been submitted in this regard through their counsel in the last week of September, but no reply has been received so far, they said.

Preeti Goyal said she had been working there for the past four years. But after the resignation, she had withdrawn her pharmacist’s licence from the Red Cross Medical Store as her name was being used as an additional qualified person for running the medical store.

Goyal said she had also filed an application with the Drug Inspector, stating that she had resigned from the post, so she was withdrawing her licence. Now, there is no qualified person to run the medical store, she added.

As the Drug Inspector was on leave today, an employee of his office said they had received the application from Preeti Goyal. A notice would now be issued to the Red Cross Medical Store for a qualified person to run the medical store. She, however, said the store did not have any qualified person as per their records.

However, the Red Cross Medical Store was today found to be functioning. When efforts were made to contact the secretary of the DRCS, JR Goyal, for his comments on the running of the Red Cross Medical Store in the absence of a qualified person, his mobile phone remained unanswered. 

Bathinda, November 11
As many as 29 new positive cases of dengue from the city and three cases from other parts of the Bathinda district were detected today during the Mac Elisa tests, conducted on blood samples at the Blood Bank here.

Thus, the total number of positive dengue cases in the district has risen to 723, including 620 from Bathinda. SMO of the local Civil Hospital Dr Satish Goyal said, “The Mac Elisa tests were conducted on 94 blood samples of the suspected dengue patients at the Blood Bank here today. Of them, 49 were found positive for dengue. Of the 49 cases, 17 were from other districts, including 14 from Mansa while 32 were from Bathinda district.

Bathinda, November 11
Gold worth nearly Rs 5 lakh was stolen from the house of a property dealer at the Guru Gobind Singh Nagar in the city.

In his complaint to the police, Pawanjit Verma said that on the intervening night of November 8 and 9, some unidentified people entered his house and decamped with gold.

Investigating officer in the case ASI Karamjeet Singh said the thieves entered the house after breaking the locks of the front door. The doors of other rooms were open and the gold, nearly 210 gram worth around Rs 5 lakh, was stolen.

The incident took place when the family members of the complainant were not present at home.

A case under Sections 457 and 380 of the IPC has been registered in this regard.

No arrests have been made in this regard so far.

Investigating officer in the case ASI Karamjeet Singh said the incident could have been averted had the complainant kept the valuables in a bank locker.